Device for conveying thin sheets to a stacker

ABSTRACT

A device for delivering thin sheetlike items, such as vouchers, checks, or bills, to a stacker while giving the items a stiffening curvature about at least one axis extending in the conveying direction, the degree of curvature depending on the thickness of the sheet and being sufficient for the stacking process without producing an unacceptable degree of permanent deformation.

United States Inventors Appl. No. Filed Patented Assignee Priority atent Karl Rehm Konstanz;

Roland Zeitler, Neu Isenburg 11, both of Germany Dec. 1, 1969 Jan. 4, 1972 Telefunken Patentverwertungsgesellschaft m.b.l-1.

am Danube, Germany Nov. 30, 1968 Germany DEVICE FOR CONVEYING THIN SHEETS TO A STACKER 5 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl 271/71, 271/86 Int. Cl B65h 29/22 Field ofSearch 271/71,68, 51, 86

[56] References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 346,411 7/1886 Metzger et al. 271/86 1,941,484 1/1934 Nasmith 271/51 3,042,397 7/1962 Tarbuck 271/51 3,272,504 9/ 1 966 Schnoebelen 271/68 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,160,003 2/1958 France OTHER REFERENCES Fertig, F. L., Stacker for Documents of Varying Sizes," IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 4, No. 5, October 1961.

Primary Examiner.loseph Wegbreit Assistant ExaminerBruce H. Stoner, Jr. An0rneySpencer & Kaye ABSTRACT: A device for delivering thin sheetlike items, such as vouchers, checks, or bills, to a stacker while giving the items a stiffening curvature about at least one axis extending in the conveying direction, the degree of curvature depending on the thickness of the sheet and being sufficient for the stacking process without producing an unacceptable degree of permanent deformation.

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DEVICE FOR CONVEYING THIN SHEETS TO A STACKER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a conveying device associated with a stacker for thin sheet-type items which are to receive a stiffening curvature around at least one axis of curvature extending in the conveying direction, the curvature being imparted by two laterally offset guide elements acting on the item at one side thereof and one central guide element acting on the item from the other side thereof and extending between the two laterally offset guide elements. The guide elements to the one side of the item and those at the other side are movable relative to one another and a spring force is effective therebetween.

A conveying device having these features is disclosed in French Pat. No. 1,160,003. That patent discloses lateral guide elements formed by two discs of a guide roller with which two discs of a counter roller coact. The two first-mentioned disc are connected by a cylinder having a smaller diameter and each sheet brought over those discs is pressed at its central zone against the cylinder by a narrow resilient tongue which is disposed at the other side of the sheet and between the discs.

A stiffening curvature around at least one axis extending in the conveying direction is imperative in the case of items having a very low inherent stiffness in order to enable the items to be properly and consistently stacked. Due to their lack of stifiness such items receive only a very slight permanent deformation as a result of having been curved. However, when such a device conveys items having a greater stiffness, and thus requiring a correspondingly lesser degree of additional stiffening, the inevitable curving prior to stacking, when the same curvature is imparted to all items, produces an undesirable, greater permanent deformation particularly after repeated passage of such stiffer items through processing equipment. When sheets having different degrees of stiffness are mixed together in the stacking operation, such greater permanent deformations could lead to malfunctions or, at least, to a reduction in the permissible processing speed during later processing stages, e.g. in the subsequent withdrawal of the sheets from the stack.

While the above-mentioned French Pat. No. 1,160,003 does not present any suggestion of imparting a degree of curvature to the sheets when depends on their own inherent stiffness, it has been found that appropriate dimensioning of the spring force of the tongue serving as the center guide element could produce such an effect. However, difi'erent radii of curvature would there be realizable for the sheets only by creating correspondingly different bending heights, i.e. the distance by which the center of the item is bent out of the original plane of the item. Because of structural limitations, adapting the curvature to be imparted to the sheets to their inherent stiffnes would therefore be possible in the known device only within a relatively narrow range of inherent stiffnesses.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A primary object of the present invention is to overcome such drawbacks and difiiculties.

A further object of the invention is to closely adapt the curvature imparted to each sheet by a conveying device to the stifiness of the sheet.

A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a conveying device of the type discussed above in which, over a wide range of the inherent stifi'nesses, an optimum stiffening curvature is imparted to each item undergoing the processing operation without producing an unacceptable degree of permanent deformation in any item.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWings FIG. 1 is an elevational, cross-sectional view, along the line II of FIG. 2, of a preferred embodiment of the invention for conveying items such as vouchers, checks, or bills.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view along the line IIII of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of certain elements of the conveyor according to the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to the drawing figures together, the illustrated stacker contains a stacking table I which is brought into a position which corresponds to the height of the stack formed by items 2, this being accomplished by any known controllable drive mechanism. In the area where the stack is formed there is provided an abutment wall 3. An arm 5 pivotal around an axis 4 rests on stack 2 and is provided with a lug 7 cooperating with an electric eye system 6 which cooperates with the control for the drive of the stacking table 1 to cause the stacking table to be lowered when, and as long as, the light beam of system 6 is obturated.

Conveying rollers 8 and 9 are disposed at the entrance of the conveying device of the stacker to guide the arriving items into the channel between two guide members 10 and 11. From there the items move onto a guide surface 12 and past two further pairs of rollers which are each formed by a guide roller 13 and a counter roller 14. The guide surface 12 is provided with lateral recesses 15 to permit passage of counter rollers 14 as can be seen particularly in FIG. 2.

The intended axis of curvature of the items is disposed approximately along their center and the guide plate 12 is provided with a crease 12' which constitutes the previously men tioned center guide element and which is centered on such axis of curvature. The lateral guide elements disposed to both sides of the axis of curvature are formed by a two-part bending spring 16 which is fastened to the guide member 11 and which forms a bar, or loop, 16' at its front end which rests, in the inactive position shown in FIG. I, on arm 5. In this position it passes through two further slits, or notches, 17 disposed in the end of guide surface 12 and shown in FIG. 2.

At both sides of the spring 16 forming the lateral guide elements there are provided supporting elements which are constituted by the areas 12" of guide surface 12 which are symmetrically disposed to both sides of the crease l2 and, partially, also by the counter rollers 14. In the areas of the supporting elements 12", 14 the position of the items is additionally determined by the guide rollers 13 which act on the items from the same side as spring 16.

Finally, a further guide element 12" is also disposed in the edge area of the items following the supporting elements 12" and is also formed by a part of the guide surface 12.

The above-described embodiment operates in the following manner.

When an item 20 having a lesser degree of stiffness, eg. a relatively thin voucher, enters into the conveying device for the stacker, it is caused to assume a shape which is shown in dashed lines in FIG. 2. This is achieved by the interaction of the illustrated elements, thus bringing the spring 16 into the position marked 16a. Thus a strong curvature is imparted to the item 2a in the area of crease 12' so that it is appropriately stiffened.

If, however, in item 2b of greater stiffness enters into the conveying device, it will urge the spring 16 into the position marked 16b and will take the shape which is shown in dotdashed lines in FIG. 2. The curvature imparted to item 2b in the area of crease 12 is thus less than that of item 2a.

With items of lesser to medium stiffness, reverse curvatures are produced in the vicinities of the arms of spring 16 when the spring is in position 160, due to the presence of supporting elements 12". In all cases the supporting elements 12" determine, by their position with respect to the crease 12' forming the center guide element, a given item bending height which is uniform for items of every stiffness and which is indicated by the distance I: in FIG. 2.

By the presence of the outer guide elements 12" a further relatively flat curvature is produced which imparts a similar basic shape to all items independent of their inherent stifi'ness.

From the foregoing explanations it is evident that, in the conveying device of the present invention, an optimum stiffening curvature is imparted to each item over a wide range of inherent stiffnesses and without exceeding a given bending height. Moreover this height is uniform for items of every stiffness which results in a similar aerodynamic behavior of the items while approaching the surface of the stack.

It will be understood that the above description of the present invention is susceptible to various modifications, changes and adaptations and the same are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a conveying device for conveying thin sheet-type items while imparting to such items a stiffening curvature about at least one axis of curvature extending in the conveying direction, which device includes two laterally offset guide elements acting on the items from one side thereof and one central guide element acting on the items from the other side thereof and disposed between the two laterally offset guide elements, a spring force being effective between the guide elements at one side and the other of the central guide element and the guide elements being movable with respect to one another, the improvement comprising supporting elements disposed to the outside of said laterally offset guide elements, said supporting elements being immovable with respect to said central guide element and being positioned with respect thereto for establishing a fixed item bending height which is determined by the distance between the item contacting surfaces of said central guide element and said supporting elements so that this height remains constant for items of any stifiness, and wherein the spring force is set for producing a curvature of each items at said central guide element as well as a reverse curvature at said laterally offset guide elements, the degree of which curvature is inversely proportional to the stiffness of each item.

2. An arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein said central guide element is constituted by a creased portion of a guide member and there are two supporting elements constituted by outer regions of said guide member, which regions are symmetrically disposed with respect to said creased portion, and wherein said laterally offset guide elements are constituted by a two-part bending spring.

3. Conveying device as defined in claim 2, furthe comprising guide rollers for the items, said guide rollers being disposed in the vicinity of said supporting elements and acting on the same side of the items as said laterally offset guide elements.

4. An arrangement as defined in claim 3 further comprising counter rollers each cooperating with a respective guide roller.

5. An arrangement as defined in claim 3 additionally comprising further outer guide elements disposed laterally to the outside of said supporting elements for imparting a further relatively flat curvature to the items in the vicinity of each said guide roller, the direction of such further curvature being the same as that of the reverse curvatures produced by said laterally offset guide elements. 

1. In a conveying device for conveying thin sheet-type items while imparting to such items a stiffening curvature about at least one axis of curvature extending in the conveying direction, which device includes two laterally offset guide elements acting on the items from one side thereof and one central guide element acting on the items from the other side thereof and disposed between the two laterally offset guide elements, a spring force being effective between the guide elements at one side and the other of the central guide element and the guide elements being movable with respect to one another, the improvement comprising supporting elements disposed to the outside of said laterally offset guide elements, said supporting elements being immovable with respect to said central guide element and being positioned with respect thereto for establishing a fixed item bending height which is determined by the distance between the item contacting surfaces of said central guide element and said supporting elements so that this height remains constant for items of any stiffness, and wherein the spring force is set for producing a curvature of each item at said central guide element as well as a reverse curvature at said laterally offset guide elements, the degree of which curvature is inversely proportional to the stiffness of each item.
 2. An arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein said central guide element is constituted by a creased portion of a guide member and there are two supporting elements constituted by outer regions of said guide member, which regions are symmetrically disposed with respect to said creased portion, and wherein said laterally offset guide elements are constituted by a two-part bending spring.
 3. Conveying device as defined in claim 2, further comprising guide rollers for the items, said guide rollers being disposed in the vicinity of said supporting elements and acting on the same side of the items as said laterally offset guide elements.
 4. An arrangement as defined in claim 3 further coMprising counter rollers each cooperating with a respective guide roller.
 5. An arrangement as defined in claim 3 additionally comprising further outer guide elements disposed laterally to the outside of said supporting elements for imparting a further relatively flat curvature to the items in the vicinity of each said guide roller, the direction of such further curvature being the same as that of the reverse curvatures produced by said laterally offset guide elements. 